A Walk in the Park

There’s walking, and then there’s walking. When Lisa Dempster set out to tackle the Shikoku Pilgrimage – a 1200km, 88 temple route through regional Japan – she was at a nadir of mental and physical health; desperate for something to bring major change to her life.

As she describes the gruelling journey, laid out in her travelogue Neon Pilgrim (2009; re-launching this August), it surprised her with unexpected spiritual encounters. Yet the sense of an inner shift was still elusive and intangible – and something which only later emerged through writing about the experience.

Walking Princes Park with doctor and author Leah Kaminsky, Dempster will recount the circumstances of her adventure, and how it’s impacted her life in the near-decade since.